The one that didn’t do that anymore, the one that had dried up, questioned whether they’d just always been assholes. Of course, there were circumstances that made people do what they did. But to corner a woman who was alone for the purpose of raping her? And then probably robbing me and maybe killing me?
“I want to make sure we understand each other. You’re going to… hurt me? That’s your intention. And I should let you know that isn’t going to happen. Not ever. There are two of you, one of me and yet you two are going to fare very badly in this. If you come at me now, I will kill you.”
The one on the left laughed. “We might be… as you say… in need of help. But I can say without a doubt, the two of us and you? You don’t stand a chance.”
I sighed. If only that were still the case.
The knife taped to my back burned. “Please don’t do this. Please just go about your way. I’ll go mine and we can all pretend this never happened.”
They didn’t.
* * *
I sat on the ground, knife in hand, with two dead bodies on either side of me. I was covered in blood—again—with no idea if the whole exchange had just been caught on video feed or not. I didn’t see a camera but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. Kade had taught me just how intrusive technology could be. It was a constant battle to keep ahead of it.
Had I done so now?
Well, I didn’t hear police sirens or see anyone coming.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Kade.
“Hey there,” his deep voice boomed through the phone to my ear. “You’re still at the storage space? Did the key not work?”
I sighed. “I have two dead bodies. I just killed two men. They threatened me but that’s neither here nor there. What do I do with the dead bodies?” He was silent, so I spoke again. “Kade?”
“Sorry, I heard you. What happened? Are you okay? Are you safe now?”
I smiled. “I’m sitting on the ground. My attackers are dead. I think I’m relatively safe. I’m going to go get your stuff out of your locker in a second. But I’m asking about the bodies. What should I do with them?”
The last times I’d been involved in situations like this I’d had others to handle the aftermath.
“Do?” He groaned. “Don’t do anything. I’ll be right fucking there.”
I sighed and hung up. I really was either the person with the worst luck in the world or there was something with my karma that drew this nonsense to me. I must have done something bad in a past life or something. Not that I particularly believed in anything anymore.
I got to my feet. Sitting on the ground feeling sorry for myself wasn’t going to get me anywhere. There were things to do and maybe there was the possibility of still getting that Chinese Food. My stomach rumbled. I had two dead drug addicts less than a foot away and I was already hungry. It was as though every time I took a life, some part of me that found horror in this disappeared with it.
I found the bag Kade wanted and locked up behind me just as an SUV skidded to a stop in front of the locker. I had parked a distance away, not knowing exactly where I was supposed to be. Maybe if I’d been right in front, I could have avoided this altogether.
Kade and Judson jumped out on opposite sides, almost simultaneously.
“Are you hurt?” Jud yelled, running over first.
I looked down at myself. “Not my blood.”
He spun me around like he looked for holes in my body and not finding them, pulled me against him. There was something wrong about getting blood all over Judson, considering how nice his clothes were. “You’re going to get yucky.”
“I’ll throw the clothes out.” I thought about hugging him back, but the truth was that my arms just didn’t want to do that right now. He waited a beat before he looked at me. Judson cupped my chin before he narrowed his eyes. “Everly? You okay?”
“I’m fine.” I shrugged. “Just hungry.”
“You’re not.” Judson pulled me against him again, this time not seeming to care if I hugged him back or not. He didn’t let go. “You can talk to me.”
I didn’t pull back, which surprised me. I wasn’t ready to hug but standing there like that seemed like a perfectly okay idea. “I’m obviously not okay. We have two bodies. What are we going to do with them?”
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. Don’t run away, Everly.”
Where did he think I was going to go? “I’m standing right here.”
“You’re running away emotionally,” he whispered in my ear. “Last time it was physical. This time you’re leaving while you stand here.”
I sighed. “Judson, when I asked Derrick to teach me how to kill, I thought it would be Ben. There are a lot of people who are dead because I asked that question. And I don’t even feel sorry. I think I might be dead inside.”
He rubbed my back. “You’re not dead inside. They threatened you. It’s called self-defense. It’s even legal.”
I leaned back to look at him. “I have skills the normal person doesn’t have. Maybe I could have disarmed them. I didn’t even think about it.”
“Who would think about that? They might have been out of their minds. What were they on? I see track marks. And…”
I shook my head. “Judson, you don’t have to make this okay for me. I did this. I killed two drug addicts. I didn’t try to run. They lunged at me, I took out my knife, and that was that. I am a psychotic killer, and I don’t feel remorse.”
He snorted. “I’ve known psychotic killers my whole life. You might be living in denial, but you are not that.”
“I’m going to get this cleaned up,” Kade said, stepping over one of the bodies to walk over to us. “Any evidence you were here is gone.”
Judson squeezed me again. “I’m going to take her home. Do you want me to come back and help with the clean up?”
Kade waved his hand. “No, I’ve easily got this.”
He easily had this. Of course he did. I killed two men, and Kade would just erase the whole thing like it never happened. I rubbed the back of my neck. Why did he do this? Because he loved me, and he was Alliance. Oh, it might be in ruins at the moment, and we might be hiding until we could take back control, but there it was.
The Alliance. It was always there. It would never be gone. And if I wanted to kill two men by a storage unit—well, that would be just fine. It would be handled. Why did this still surprise me? I should have been feeling grateful about it, and yet there was something that was still so off about this whole thing, and I wondered if it would ever become my normal.
Would that be okay if it did?
Judson took my arm. “Where are your car keys?”
I pulled them out of my pocket. “Your keys, if you want to be exact. I stole them from you.”
He laughed. “While I face planted on my bed, dead to the world, you came in my room and stole my car. I see how it is. Well, we’ll just have to get your car from Warden delivered here and then you won’t have to steal from me.”
“Maybe stealing is one of the things I want to be really good at. Like death. I’m a death giver. I can be a take your stuff person, too.”
He kissed my cheek, his mouth lingering there while he spoke in a whisper. “I’ve killed people. A lot of them. At the behest of the Alliance. I never talk about it but there it is. You are not a death giver. Today, they would have hurt you. Even before Derrick taught you some skills that you mastered, you wouldn’t have sat around and taken that. This is going to be okay.”
The thing was I was pretty much okay. And that concerned me more than anything else. Who the fuck was I? “I really wanted that Chinese food, and I bought pretty stuff for the house.”
“Well, I’ll get you some Chinese. You can’t go in. You’re covered in blood. I’ll go in. Just tell me what you want. Keep in mind, I’m not sure Warden has ever eaten take out Chinese. So we may need to get a variety of stuff so he can figure out what he’ll eat. He’s been to China, but he probably only ate
in five star restaurants there.”
That didn’t surprise me in the least. This was Warden. Of course in this case, Jud was one to talk. “How much Chinese have you eaten?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “I went to medical school. We ate Chinese at midnight while we studied for exams.”
“So once or twice?”
He laughed, throwing his head back. “Maybe three times.”
We drove in silence except for me directing him to the closest takeout down the street. We were close enough I could have walked. Except, I was covered in blood. Judson had to go buy the food for me while I waited in the car, staring out the window at the cars rushing by on the busy street behind us. Ben would have called them ants. Kade would have called them that, too, when I first met him. I envied them their ignorance and I knew that was a ridiculous thing to think. How nice would it be to be in one of those cars, planning a dinner, a hookup, talking about… nothing.
* * *
“I’ve eaten Chinese food before,” Warden rolled his eyes as he spooned some white rice into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed before he winked at me. “Lots of time. More than Jud, I bet.”
Trace shook his head. “Judson Smythe and Warden White argue about which one of them is less of a snob, and they’re both losing.”
Judson grinned. “Because you’re such a man of the people? How much did your watch cost that they took in the Caribbean? I bet that’s what got her attention, got you held ransom. Where is that watch?”
Trace rubbed the absent place on his wrist. “I miss that thing.”
If anyone noticed I was completely disengaged, they didn’t say. It might not have been the kind of thing that men like the ones I loved noticed. Or maybe they just didn’t have a clue what to say to me since I was so hot and cold on this topic. I didn’t even know what to say to me, and I was the one living with my internal monologue.
“Is the food what you expected?” Judson addressed me before he took a bite. Kade was still not back, which didn’t seem to concern anyone, and Derrick was off on his mission to contact other assassins.
I swallowed the bite of chicken I’d put in my mouth. Truth was I couldn’t taste anything at all. “It’s perfect.”
His smile was huge. “Great. That makes me incredibly happy. Something should go right today.”
I was absolutely not going to spoil this for him. Of course, I need not have worried. Trace was here. He would never let this go.
“She’s lying.” He swallowed his drink. “She hates it, and she’s trying to make us feel better by saying she likes it. It doesn’t make any sense that she should think she has to do that since she was threatened, attacked, and had to kill two people today.” He raised his eyebrows to me. “You don’t have to make this okay for us.”
I shook my head. “My god, you can be such an ass sometimes. It’s a good thing I love you or I’d take your fucking chopsticks and jam them so far up your nose I could cut out your brain with them.”
Warden choked. “She actually could do that.”
I wasn’t done. “Making it easier on you and not having it pointed out that I was lying would have meant I didn’t have to discuss this with any of you, didn’t have to rehash again how they said they were going to rape me. How they are now dead because I slit one’s throat and stabbed the other one in the jugular. Same knife. I don’t have to talk about how the first one never got a second to scream but number two did.” I leaned forward. “And how the premiere thought I had afterward was about how hungry I was for Chinese food that I can now not really taste.” I shrugged. “Do you think I have a brain tumor, Jud?”
“I think stress does funny things to people.” He smoothed my hair off my forehead. “And you’re in denial if you think you didn’t care. Your first and foremost thought was not about food.”
Trace sighed. “Everly, we have watched so many people lose themselves to this. I think I was lost before I found you. Until the day we kidnapped you and you woke up and made that ridiculous run barefoot through the woods, I was lost. I don’t want to lose you to it. We’re a table full of killers. If you wanted Chinese after you killed them, well, that’s not that weird to us.”
Was that true? “I killed that woman in the Caribbean who held you captive. I put a knife through her eye. I’d been debating using that move for months. It was almost convenient. Easy. Oh, now I’ll shove that knife in her eye. We’re super rich. I could have negotiated with her. I didn’t even think of it. She threatened, I killed. Same thing today. I get a threat and I react. I’m lethal and not restrained.”
Trace threw some rice at me. The act was so bizarre, so shocking and ridiculous, that my mouth fell open in response. “We’re throwing food?”
He got up. “I’m on too many drugs right now to fuck you. One benefit of coming off the pills in a few days will be the return of things to where they should be. But I think someone has to fuck you, Everly. In a big way.”
Sometimes the things Trace said skirted the edge of me wanting to kill him, sometimes what he said went over that edge. It was amazing I loved him. “Do you think your magic dick is going to fix things, T? Oops, had sex with you now Everly is fixed?”
“Not mine today.” He bent over and ate the rice that was semi-attached off my neck. “But I think they’re all going to fuck you and that doesn’t mean I can’t make you feel good.”
I trembled with pleasure as he did that. Damn Trace for being right. He was way too cocky as it was. “Trace…”
I didn’t get to finish what I would have said because Warden scooted his chair closer to me so he could nibble on my neck. “Trace is right. Off the painkillers and I’m going to fuck you so hard you won’t be able to walk. Can’t do that right now I don’t think. But Judson can and we can help.”
I’d closed my eyes while he said those delicious words, but my lids flew open right then. I almost laughed. Judson’s face held an expression of absolute disbelief. The same I imagined was on my own right now. “Have either of you discussed with Judson the idea of group sex and Chinese food?”
Warden smiled, his mouth moving against my neck. “Judson never turns down a challenge even when he’s initially a little surprised. Isn’t that right, my friend?”
That was true. But there were things about J that the others didn’t know or at least I didn’t think they did. We’d never talked about whether or not his tie was a secret. Of course, we’d already had sex once since we’d gotten back together without needing it, so maybe I was worrying about nothing.
He rose. Since he’d sat next to me he didn’t have far to travel. “I don’t turn down a challenge. Making love to Everly with or without you two is not that. But yes, I’m game. The question is are the two of you up for it?”
Warden smiled. “I’m not feeling any pain right now.”
“I wouldn’t have started what I couldn’t do. Besides, the calisthenics will be all on you, brother. I just have to get her going.”
I was already going. Judson walked toward his bedroom. “Be right back. Going to grab something.”
“More time for us.” Warden pushed the food off the table with a bang. I eyed the mess on the floor. “Who’s going to clean that?”
Trace grinned. “We’ll leave it for Kade.”
I doubted that very much. K was just as likely to step over the mess and forget it was there. In any case, I didn’t get to think on it very long. Trace pointed to the table, and I got on it, but Warden grabbed my shirt, stopping me from lying all the way down.
“Raise your arms,” Warden told me, and I did just as he said. He tugged my shirt over my head with his good arm. “Oh look, you’re wearing a black bra. I love that look on you. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Pale skin. Black bra. It’s like a painting.”
Trace kissed my cheek. “It’s the shade I can see. She understands me.”
I wished I’d given it that much thought. I’d put it on, end of story. But maybe I subconsciously only had black bras now for that reason. I’d go with that.
Trace dropped some orange sauce on my abs before he pushed me down so that I was flat on my back on the table. In the meantime, Warden unzipped my pants. It was a good thing I’d cleaned up before dinner otherwise this would have been not nearly as sexy.
I cupped Trace’s cheek. “Don’t hurt yourself doing this.”
“I won’t. Like I said, I’m going to be frustrated and not able to finish as I’d like. But I’m going to make you feel good. Warden, too. We didn’t plan this, but I’m so glad the idea came to me.”
I rolled my eyes but winked at him. “You’re just getting yourself out of trouble for being such a douche bag.”
Warden laughed as he discarded my pants over his shoulder. “Sex and Chinese food. It’s a great way to end the night.”
“You see through me so well, Everly Marrs. I never thought I’d like that, but I truly do.” Trace unhooked my bra. He licked the sauce he dripped on me off my abs. I shuddered. Oh wow. I hadn’t thought to like that but damn I really did.
I giggled. “Do that again.”
Warden slipped my panties off my legs. “You made her giggle. Seriously, do that again. I loved that sound.”
“It was a great noise.” Judson joined us, his tie in hand. I blinked at it. He’d bought a black silk one. We’d had this discussion about what color I wanted, and he’d gotten it.
I pointed at it. “My graduation gift?”
“No. This one is a gift to myself used on you. You are getting a gift from me. It’s just taking a little time to arrange.”
Trace stared at the silk tie. “Really?”
Judson didn’t answer but came over to me. “What are you going to say to any of us if this goes too far and you don’t like it?”
That was easy. “Stop.”
Judson nodded before he started to tie up my wrists. “Proceed, gentlemen, this takes a few minutes.”
Deadly Truths: Kiss Her Goodbye #3 Page 13
